ArticleBrain sciences2021
The Effect of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Divergent and Convergent Thinking and Its Influence by Mood.
Article in Brain sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Acute and Chronic Physical Activity Increases Creative Ideation Performance: A Systematic Review and Multilevel Meta-analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2022Pooled it
- Physiological adjustment effects of viewing natural environment images on heart rate variability in individuals with depressive and anxiety disorders.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Evaluating the impact of a short bout of stair-climbing on creative thinking in a between-subjects pretest posttest comparison study.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- The interplay between cognitive, affective, and physical activity correlates in older adults.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Trait mindful attention is associated with greater real-time emotional benefits of positive experiences: Evidence from experimental studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The impact of physical activity on innovative behavior: a moderated mediation model.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Habitual physical activity is related to more creative activities and achievements.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Impact of chronic physical activity on individuals' creativity.Psychological research · 2024Article
- Editorial: Advances in the understanding of the affective and cognitive effects of physical activity, exercise, and sports.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Toward a computational understanding of how reminiscing about positive autobiographical memories influences decision-making under risk.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Comparison of the effects of indoor and outdoor exercise on creativity: an analysis of EEG alpha power.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Editorial: The effects of physical activity and exercise on cognitive and affective wellbeing.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Regular Vigorous-Intensity Physical Activity and Walking Are Associated with Divergent but not Convergent Thinking in Japanese Young Adults.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- The Effect of Brief Stair-Climbing on Divergent and Convergent Thinking.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Abundant evidence shows that various forms of physical exercise, even conducted briefly, may improve cognitive functions. However, the effect of physical exercise on creative thinking remains under-investigated, and the role of mood in this effect remains unclear. In the present study, we set out to investigate the effect of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on divergent and convergent thinking and whether this effect depends on the post-exercise mood. Forty healthy young adults were randomly assigned to receive a 15-min exercise or control intervention, before and after which they conducted an alternate use test measuring divergent thinking and an insight problem-solving task measuring convergent thinking. It was found that exercise enhanced divergent thinking in that it increased flexibility and fluency. Importantly, these effects were not mediated by the post-exercise mood in terms of pleasure and vigor. In contrast, the effect on convergent thinking depended on subjects' mood after exercise: subjects reporting high vigor tended to solve more insight problems that were unsolved previously, while those reporting low vigor became less capable of solving previously unsolved problems. These findings suggest that aerobic exercise may affect both divergent and convergent thinking, with the former being mood-independent and the latter mood-dependent. If these findings can be replicated with more rigorous studies, engaging in a bout of mood, particularly vigor-enhancing aerobic exercise, may be considered a useful strategy for gaining insights into previously unsolved problems.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.